Judge: No to Balboa Park plan

Besides changes to the Plaza de Panama and El Prado, the plan calls for a bypass bridge off the Cabrillo Bridge to detour traffic through the Alcazar Garden parking lot and on toward the new garage.
— -- Plaza de Panama Committee

Besides changes to the Plaza de Panama and El Prado, the plan calls for a bypass bridge off the Cabrillo Bridge to detour traffic through the Alcazar Garden parking lot and on toward the new garage.
/ -- Plaza de Panama Committee

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The plan, funded in part by Jacobs, would have added a bypass bridge to the Cabrillo Bridge on the west and removed cars and traffic from the center of the park, including the main Plaza de Panama, to make it a pedestrian-oriented gathering space.

But the Save Our Heritage Organisation, which sued the city and Jacobs' Plaza de Panama Committee, objected to the bypass because of its visual impact on the historic park entrance. It cited support from other national and state agencies and organizations.

The city or Jacobs' Plaza de Panama Committee could appeal the ruling or Jacobs and SOHO could negotiate a compromise, but time is running short to make any major changes in time of the January 2015 start to the centennial of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition that made Balboa Park what it is today.

SOHO called an appeal "unwise" and Jacobs declined any reaction at least until Tuesday. He has funded $8 million so far and had committed to raising $30 million privately to match 15 million from the city. He had earlier said he might support an alternate plan that met his goals and none emerged from an exhaustive environmental review process that the judge upheld as sufficiently thorough.

Mayor Bob Filner in a statement called on SOHO, Jacobs and the committee planning the 2015 centennial celebration of the exposition to "work cooperatively and expeditiously" to turn the Plaza de Panama into "predominantly pedestrian use."

"With good faith and hard work on each side, a mutually acceptable vision can be agreed upon quickly," said Filner, who during his campaign last year had opposed the Jacobs plan.

In essence, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith's office argued that parking and traffic in the park's center is bad and that Jacobs' plan would improve the experience for visitors. The judge agreed that the plan was laudable, but parking and traffic, even if an undesirable use of parkland is still a reasonable use of the land -- and that is the legal standard he has to follow when altering a historic site such as Balboa Park is involved.

"The city abused its decision in making the finding of 'no reasonable beneficial use of the property,'" Taylor said in his final ruling, "and SOHO is entitled to a writ of mandamus directing the city to set aside this determination and set aside its approval" of the Jacobs plan.

The approval included amendments to the park's master plan, the design of the bypass bridge, conversion of the plaza parking lot into a pedestrian zone and construction of an 800-space paid parking garage south of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.

Goldsmith's office issued a statement welcoming the judge's upholding of the city's environmental analysis of the plan but did not comment on the ruling overturning the Jacobs plan, saying it will first confer with the City Council on the next course of action.